The Gamechangers
by goodpie2
Summary: The Turians are old hands at warfare- they know the rules of the game, and are the best players in the galaxy. But what happens when they run into a species that not only plays a completely different game, but breaks the rules to that one, too? M for violence and swearing.
1. Timeline and Codex

So, here's my latest story. Yeah, I know. I have too many of them, and I don't update often enough. But the plot tribbles won't stop breeding, and force feeding them to get them to grow more only makes them look weird. This story is actually something I've wanted to find for a while, and finally decided to just write one myself. It's also heavily influenced by Omniscient1's _Mythos Effect, _one of my all time favorite fics. In fact, the term "arcaneotechnology" is stolen directly from that fic.

I would also like to explain my failure to update _Those Damn Primitives. _It's because, frankly, I don't know shit abouut tactics, and that's making it extremely difficult to write. I don't think I'll have the same problem with this story though, because while the First Contact War is still gonna be there, it's gonna be different. And yes, it will consist of the Turians getting their asses handed to them, because the Turians annoy the hell out of me. They're such a bunch of arrogant _bastards. _Unfortunately, I _may _have to give them a moderate power boost, just to keep things interesting. You'll see why soon. Hell, considering some of the abilities I'm giving to humans, I'd probably need to boost them anyway.

I am also getting rid of the Reapers in exactly the same manner I used in _Those Damn Primitives_, because I frikkin' hate the Reapers, and I like the idea I used before.

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Timeline

100,000 years ago, a race known only as the Predecessors discovered the cycle of the Reapers. Knowing it was too late to save themselves, they spent their remaining time leaving warnings of the Reapers where future races would find them. When the Protheans discovered these warnings, they bent all of their research and resources towards finding a way to defeat the Reapers. Before the cycle could begin, the Protheans activated the Citadel Mass Relay, but in reverse- they went to Dark Space and eliminated the Reapers using a massive artificial black hole. The surviving Prothean civilization suffered massively from the use of resources put into combating the Reaper threat. Their civilization collapsed into a massive civil war, and the race went extinct, leaving an empty galaxy, to be filled in a way similar to the canon story. These events are completely unknown to the modern galaxy. For various reasons, none of the warnings of the Predecessors have survived to modern times.

2023- An archeological expedition finds the ruins of an ancient underground city, which was destroyed by a plague. The bacteria responsible for this plague, named Dontrin, is accidentally released due to failure to follow proper quarantine procedures. The disease spreads extremely quickly, despite all attempts to hinder its progress.

2025- Eighty percent of the world population is dead due to the spread of Dontrin. The survivors are found to have a form of immunity to the disease. The survivors begin to display strange abilities, such as telekinesis, the ability to control the environment, shapeshifting, superhuman strength, teleportation, and more. Research is begun by to explain this phenomenon.

2026- It is discovered that the DNA of the surviving human population has been rewritten in ways which should be biologically impossible. The abilities demonstrated are likewise shown to go against all known laws of science.

2033- Almost all of humanity is found to have strange abilities. The few individuals who are without powers are treated as second class citizens, and are openly discriminated against.

2035- Robert Denzon is born, covered in unkown symbols. Similar children begin to be born all over the world.

2038- It is officially determined that the abilities shown by the human population are supernatural abilities, and are thought to be magical in nature.

2041- Samuel Williams, previously thought to be without powers, discovers that he is able to enchant items. Other "powerless" individuals are soon found to have the same ability. Practically overnight, the formerly "powerless" citizens' status goes from "subhuman" to "revered."

2044- Robert Denzon finds that he is able to place runes on the bodies of others to enhance their powers. Unfortunately, the process is excruciatingly painful.

2048- Rune enhancement, while not common due to the extreme pain, is widespread. It is especially popular among pyromancers and summoners.

2132- Society begins to recover from the chaos of the Dontrin Plague. Modern industries are revived, new nations are formed, and technology is recovered.

2135- The first sentient AI is created.

2143- Enchanters combine their ability with known technology to create advances such as limitless energy, superior computers, and magical weapons.

2147- Humans with the ability to animate objects or to create golemns create artificial bodies for AIs. When combined with the abilities of enchanters, these artificial bodies are complete with human senses, and are capable of everything a pre-Dontrin human could do, and, while they lack the magical abilities of post-Dontrin humans, these artificial bodies are stronger, faster, and smarter than any human. They are not electronic in nature; instead enchanted to move at the will of an AI, which accesses a body through an arcaneotech "wireless network" of sorts.

2150- The combination of magic and technology has become commonplace. Everything from cars to computers to guns use what has become known as "arcaneotechnology."

2156- The Dontrin bacteria is eliminated, but the rewritten DNA of humanity remains.

2177- Human civilization has largely recovered from the Dontrin Plague, though the population is still low. Space exploration begins.

2180- A ruined Prothean base is discovered on Mars. It contains no valuable information or resources, but is clear proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life.

2187- The first combat capable spaceship is created by the Republic of Texas, located in the former southern United States. The nations of the world begin building space navies.

2190- The human population is now at five billion. The average lifespan of a human is roughly 120 years.

2203- Earth is invaded by an advanced alien race known as the Fortigal. The nations of the world unite to combat the threat. The Solar War begins.

2205- The arcaneotech Levitation Shield is invented. Unlike the energy shields equipped by the Fortigal, a levitation shield does not simply block projectiles. Instead, an extremely strong levitation field is projected around a ship. When a projectile enters this field, it is simply deflected "upwards" (although the term is meaningless in space, the levitation field still moves items in the same direction, thereby giving spacers a direction to which they can refer as "up"). Because the levitation shield does not simply absorb force, it cannot be broken, but projectiles with sufficient speed can impact the ship before they are fully deflected away. Likewise, energy weapons are completely immune to the levitation charm. Despite these flaws, the levitation shield is regarded as superior to energy shields, as the levitation shield is unbreakable, and the Fortigal are unable to launch projectiles fast enough to pierce it.

2206- Thanks to the enormous tactical advantage provided by the levitation shield, the Fortigal are defeated and driven back from the solar system. Over one billion lay dead, and entire nations have been rendered uninhabitable by kinetic and nuclear weaponry.

2217- Fortigal technology is reverse engineered and combined with arcaneotechnology. The most significant advances are the ability to create wormholes, FTL communication, and terraforming.

2220- The planet of Merid is terraformed, and the first extrasolar colony is founded.

2238- There are now five extrasolar colonies, the largest of which has a population of seventeen million. The human population has reached seven billion total.

2239- The colonies of Plide, Tyson, and Morph are destroyed by an alien race known as the Triating. The First Galactic War begins.

2243- The First Galactic war ends with the destruction of the Triating home planet. Human casualties are estimated at around seven hundred million.

2245- Humanity unites against future threats as the Solian Empire. Frank Tyler becomes the first Emperor of Man.

2293- The Fortigal return in greater numbers. The Second Galactic War begins.

May 2296- Emporer Tyler is slain in an assault by the Fortigal. Humanity rallies at the death of their fallen leader.

July 2296- The Solian Empire launches a counter attack against the Fortigal homeworld. The Fortigal planet is reduced to cinders, and the remaining population of the Fortigal is effectively blasted back to the Stone Age. Human casualties for the war are estimated at 600 million.

2387- An alien artifact, referred to as the Tuning Station, is discovered orbiting one of the planets in the Tarantulon system. A research team is sent to examine it, accompanied by two battlecruisers, two heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, four destroyers, and sixteen frigates.

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Codex

By 2387, the human population is around 11 billion, and there are thirteen extrasolar colonies (of the three colonies destroyed in the First Galactic War, only Plide has been reclaimed). Merid, the oldest and most industrious of the colonies, hasa population of four billion, but it is by far the largest of the colonies. The next largest colony, Tothus, has only 121 million people. The Imperial Navy has 1 _Fortress_ class ship, 9 superdreadnoughts, 44 dreadnoughts, 5 supercarriers, 17 carriers, dozens of battlecruisers, and innumerable cruisers (both light and heavy class), destroyers, and frigates. All colonies are protected by at least a dozen Orbital Defense Platforms and a naval detachment consisting of two dreadnoughts, a carrier, two squadrons of battlecruisers (four battlecruisers each), and a screen of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.

The Solian Empire is characterized by the typical human drive to improve things- arcaneotechnology has advanced far beyond the capabilities of either magic or technology alone. The Empire also remembers well the fires that forged it- diseas control and military preparedness are large parts of modern human society. Hospitals are easily accessed and all planets have stringent quarantining and screening proceedures. All citizens are required to take a basic self protection course and survival course (further courses in both subjects are available), and firearm possession is highly encouraged.

William Tyson, the current Emporer of Man, is a shrewd politician and an economic genius, but is not as gifted as his ancestor in military matters, forcing him to leave most decisions of tactics up to his advisors. Despite his difference from Frank Tyson I, however, humanity is fiercly loyal to their leader, and most citizens are deathly loyal to the Empire.

Imperial Navy ships are equipped with Arcaneotech Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (AMACs) and Arcaneotech missile launchers. The ammunition of the AMACs carries various enchantments, such as electrical, acidic, or explosive rounds. They are also capable of launching pods, which contain one to five AI golems each, for the purpose of boarding actions. The missiles are equipped with short range teleportation enchantments and a dumb AI (a dumb AI is a non-sentient one) for targeting purposes. Golemn Pods are also equipped with teleportation enchantments, Like the AMAC rounds, the missiles also carry offensive enchantments. Destroyers, dreadnoughts, and superdreadnoughts are also frequently equiped with Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) or plasma weapons, depending on the class of the ship. The INS _Sol's Fist, _the only _Fortress _class ship in commission, has both energy and plasma weapons. Some ships, depending on the specific class, have other magical equipment. For example, the _Medusa-_class heavy cruisers, which are capable of creating a fear inducing field, causing enemy crews to feel abject terror, or the _Hades_-class battlecruisers, which are capable of animating the corpses of dead enemy crew.

Imperial Navy ships fall into one of the following categories, each of which also has a number of different classes with varying abilities.

_Fortress-_class: The _Fortress _class ship is easily the largest in the Imperial Navy at over eleven kilometers long.

Superdreadnoughts (SDs)- 2-2.5 km

Dreadnoughts (DNs)-1.7-2 km

Supercarriers (SCs)- 3-3.5 km. Carries a detachment of 1300-1600 fighter drones.

Carriers (CRs)- 2-3 km. Carries a detachment of 1000-1300 fighter drones.

Battlecruisers (BCs)- 1-1.3 km

Heavy cruisers (HCs)- 800 m- 1 km

Light Cruisers (LCs)-500-600 m.

Destroyers (DSs)- 400- 600 m. While smaller than cruisers, destroyers are far more heavily armed.

Frigates (FRs)- 200- 500 m.

Fighter Drones- 5-10 m. Unmanned fighter drones are a large part of the Imperial navy's forces. Each squad of fifty drones is controlled by a smart AI. The fact that the drones are unmanned means that more room can be placed into weapons.

All ships are equipped with battlesteel armor and an arcanotech Levitation Shield, as well as a point defense system run by a smart AI. This point defense system consists of hull mounted lasers, anti-projectile missiles, and large numbers of small railguns with extremely fast firing rates.

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	2. First Contact

It's time for a tiny confession on my part. I haven't actually played the Mass Effect Games. I played a good portion of ME1, but never got around to finishing it (it's on my to do list, just like Dishonored, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Splintercell: Blacklist, and a few other games). My knowledge of the ME universe comes entirely from the dozens of Alternate First Contact fics I've read. I don't usually read them once they start the games, because I've read all that before, and it just gets so repetitive. The First Contact War is different every time. Sometimes humanity has allies, sometimes we don't, sometimes we're already a galactic force, other times we're just getting off of our little rock. It always varies, but the one constant is that we don't take shit from anybody. That's something that, in my opinion, the games got horribly wrong. The Systems Alliance was a bunch of complete pussies. Humanity would never take the kind of shit the SA put up with. Especially not the Skyllian Blitz or Batarian slavers. "Oh no! The Batarians keep enslaving our citizens, but the Citadel says we can't do anything! Oh well!" Fuck that. We'd go to war with the Batarians until they were fucking extinct.

Sorry about that. In truth, the fact that the SA is such a bunch of pussies is a large part of why I quit playing the game, though.

Anyway. On with the story.

Oh yeah- the Codex is actually going to be _in _the story, so that you don't have to scroll to the bottom and find your spot again when you want to understand something. I hate having to do that.

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"Sir! The Tuning Station is activating!" called the Lieutenant James Kawalski, the sensors officer onboard the INS _Fearless._

"Call the research team back. I don't want anybody near that thing until we've figured out what it is," ordered Captain (senior grade) James Flint.

The communications officer nodded and began to relay the order. As the research vessel, the IS _Observant, _ was moving away from the Tuning Station, an arc of electricity reached out to the ship and grabbed it, then pulled it towards the artifact. A few seconds later, there was a blue flash, and the research vessel vanished.

"What the hell just happened?" Flint asked.

"According to the readings, the _Observant _was just accelerated beyond the speed of light. There's no telling where she is now."

"Wait!" called the communications officer. "I'm getting a message from the _Observant. _They're next to another Tuning Station in another solar system. They're reporting a garden world in the system. And... there are alien ships in the system."

_Shit, _Flint thought. "Order them to try and come back here immediately. We don't know if these aliens are hostile or not. And set up a live feed from the _Observant'_s sensors. I want to know what's going on over there." He paused, then, "All hands to battle stations! This is NOT a drill! Repeat, this is NOT a drill!"

Flint grabbed his helmet from its stand and buckled his battle harness, then turned to Holoboard C, where the _Observant'_s sensors data was being projected.

**(Codex Updated- Skinsuits- With the creation of the Imperial Navy, decorative uniforms were replaced with functional ones-skinsuits (though dress uniforms are still used on formal occasions). Skinsuits are made of a latex-like material, and enable the survivors of a hull breach to survive in the vacuum of space for a limited period of time. They are equipped with breathing and cleaning charms, an emergency beacon, and propulsion systems so that the survivors can last for up to 36 hours in space and can attract or reach allied ships/shuttles.**

**Codex Updated- Battle Harnesses- A battle harness is essentially a flexisteel seatbelt designed to keep naval personnel at their battlestations during combat. It's not that complicated.)**

The holoboard showed the _Observant _a short distance from the Tuning Station, with alien ships, the largest of which was about the size of a small battlecruiser, closing in. Before the _Observant _could reach the Tuning station, parts of the alien ships flared blue, showing an energy surge. An instant later, the Observant began to display the red glow of battle damage.

"Kawalski, what the hell just happened?" Flint demanded.

The sensors officer looked at the data provided by the _Observant, _then shook his head.

"The projectiles the enemy ship fired were too fast for the _Observant's _levitation shield to deflect them away, sir. They're travelling at about a .2 C. The ones from the battlecruiser analogue traveled even faster, especially the ones fired by what looks to be a spinal mounted cannon. Also, the projectiles are _tiny. _I don't know how effective our point defense systems would be against them, simply because they'll be too damned hard to hit."

Flint frowned beside his helmet while looking at the holoboard. The _Observant _still had a ways to go, and the alien ships were closing in fast. There were two battlecruiser analogues, sixteen small heavy cruiser analogues, and thirty-two frigate analogues- if he were to go to the _Observant'_s aid, he would be heavily outnumbered. But his mission was clear- protect the research vessel at all costs. As he watched, the alien ships flared blue again, and the _Observant'_s icon indicated even more damage.

"Well, it looks like we're going to find out. Helm, take us to the Tuning Station. Let's see if we can get it to do to us what it did to the _Observant. _If it works, the task force is to follow us to the other side."

The bridge crew waited tensely as the ship accelerated towards the Tuning Station. On the main holoboard, a blue light flashed from the artifact and reached out to grab the _Fearless, _then everything went blue.

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"Another alien ship's entered the system, captain. A dreadnought this time."

Captain Scipio Tulus of the HNV (Hierarchy Naval Vessel) _Indestructible _didn't even blink at the news. He'd had no doubt that this upstart race would try to fight the Patrol Fleet over this, but he had expected more than a single dreadnought. Especially since the poor barbarians didn't even have basic Mass Effect technology- the alien vessel's lack of kinetic barriers and slow acceleration made that painfully obvious.

Just as he finished this train of thought, though, the Relay flashed again.

"Sir! More alien ships are coming through! Counting, hang on, another dreadnought, two cruisers, ten smaller cruisers, and sixteen frigates."

Now _that _was closer to what Tulus had expected. "Fire a war..."

"Power surge det..." before the sensors officer could finish his warning, two beams of red light lashed out from some of the alien ships on the vidscreen and tore through his fleet. Alarms started blaring, and damage reports began pouring in from all over the ship and fleet alike.

"Engineering reports we've lost Engine 2! We're down to half power!"

"The _Fade _is reporting critical damage!"

"The _Stormspike _has been destroyed!"

_What the hell? These primitives have _energy weapons? Tulus thought to himself as the damage reports continued.

"Prepare for impact!"

Tulus tore from his thoughts to look at the vidscreen, where several colored balls of light were moving towards his fleet.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Tulus ordered, holding onto his chair as the dreadnought accelerated sharply. Throughout the fleet, ships tried to maneuver out of the way of the incoming projectiles. Many succeeded, but many others failed. He watched in horror as the orbs passed straight through the kinetic barriers and impacted his ships, the GARDIAN lasers not even recognizing them as a threat.

A new round of damage reports began.

"The _Thylacine's _shield emitter is down! It's lost its kinetic barrier!"

"The _Zenith_'s FTL drive has been destroyed!"

"The _Executioner _is reporting critical damage!"

"The _Voyager _and the _Slayer_ have been destroyed!"

When the damage was totaled, three cruisers had been destroyed, with a cruiser and a frigate suffering critical damage, and one frigate's kinetic barrier was down. All in the first salvo.

"Have the _Executioner _withdraw from combat. Order the _Thylacine _to move to the back of the fleet, and have the _Brotherhood _lock point defense systems with them. The frigates and CruRon **(Cruiser Squadron) **One and Two are to focus fire on the first dreadnought, designated Bogey One. CruRon Four is to take out the cruiser analogues, and CruRon Three is to take out the enemy frigate screen. The _Brotherhood _is to fire on the second dreadnought, designated Bogey Two."

The Tactical Officer punched in Scipio's commands and sent them to the fleet, and the Turians opened fire.

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"The AMACs and missile launchers are ready to go, sir." It had taken a little while to coordinate, but the next round was going to be a hell of an attack. Sixty-nine AI golemns, with the rest of the AMAC rounds being explosive in nature. Ten percent of the missiles were madness rounds. On untrained civilians, madness rounds could cause complete (albeit temporary) insanity and lack of coherent thought. Since these were likely to be at least moderately disciplined soldiers, though, the best the humans could really hope for was severe drunkenness. The remaining missiles were standard, unenchanted rounds.

"Good. Fire a round of HRs **(Heavy Rounds)** first, to take out any shields they have, and shoot half of the GPs **(Golemn Pods) **at Bogey Two, with the other half to be spread between Bogeys Five and Nineteen." Dozens of massive projectiles, designed to destroy the energy shields used by the Fortigal and Triating, were fired from the AMACs. On the holoboard, the undamaged enemy battlecruiser-analogue, a cruiser, and a frigate were given an icon of a smiley face. "Order the AIs to take the ships and to try and take the command and engineering crews prisoner. The ERs **(Explosive Rounds) **from the _Nemisis _and its accompanying ships are to aim at Bogey One." The damaged enemy battlecruiser analogue was highlighted in red. "CruRon One and DS One and Two are to fire on the remaining cruiser analogues. Everybody else can pick their targets at will, so long as they refrain from firing on Bogeys Two, Five, and Nineteen. "

"Oh," Flint grinned evilly. "After everything hits, order the _Nemesis _to start using its N-cannon. The _Medusas _are to use terror tactics on any ship hit with the N-cannon."

The tac officer grinned back to Flint. "Orders transmitted, sir. And if I may say, I look forward to seeing the N-cannon in action."

"So do I, Commander," Flint responded, just before the call of "Enemy ships firing! Initiate evasive maneuvers!" came from the sensors officer, and the ship accelerated sharply to starboard.

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"Confirmed kill, sir," called the sensors officer on the _Indestructible. _"We destroyed one of the small cruisers and two of the frigates, and another small cruiser and a normal one seem to be suffering critical damage. We've done moderate damage on... dammit! They're firing again! These aren't energy weapons, though. It looks like a combination of a primitive magnetic accelerator rounds and missiles."

_Spirits, _Tulus thought. _How many different weapons do these primitives _have_? _Tulus watched as a wave of massive projectiles and other, smaller missiles left the enemy ships, followed shortly by another, smaller wave of even larger projectiles, then a much larger wave of smaller ones.

Evasive maneuvers began and the GARDIAN systems activated, then everybody on the bridge froze as roughly a fifth of the missiles onscreen abruptly vanished. Suddenly, explosions erupted throughout the patrol fleets ships. From the _inside _of the ships.

"What the _hell _just happened, lieutenant? Tulus demanded of his sensors officer. "I'm not sure, sir. Apparently, the aliens have a way of teleporting their missiles directly onto the ships."

"Don't be ridiculous," Tulus demanded.

"I'm serious, sir. The missiles vanished, and an instant later, there were explosions onboard the ships. It's the only... IMPACT!"

In the chaos of the apparently teleported missiles, the two Turians had completely forgotten about the rest of the weapons headed in their direction. They watched the screen as the first wave struck the kinetic barriers while the second wave also disappeared.

"Sir! Shields are down to twelve percent!" reported the tactical officer.

"I'm getting reports of boarders on the lower levels of the _Brotherhood. _The _Malta _and the _Shade _are also reporting boarders. According to the _Brotherhood,_ the boarders are some kind of AI. We're facing synthetics here, sir."

AIs. The enemy was using AIs. It was common knowledge that it was impossible for AIs and organics to coexist peacefully. Therefore, if AIs were present among the enemy, then they must be facing a race of synthetics. It was common sense.

Blood drained from Tulus's face at the realization that they were facing another enemy like the Geth- merciless, emotionless, completely unwilling to retreat or withdraw from action, and totally bent on annihilating all organic life. Spirits forbid that the two races of Synthetics ever meet each other

Then the next wave hit. The GARDIAN systems activated, shooting down MAC rounds left and right, but they just kept coming. With the kinetic barriers weakened by that first barrage, most of the alien rounds went straight through them to hit the Turian ships before exploding.

"Have the crews of all ships prepare to repel boarders. Make sure they know to use Disruptor Rounds, too."

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Cortana, named after the AI from _Halo 37 _(some joker in the 22nd century had decided to name AIs after sci-fi characters, and the tradition had stuck)_, _grinned as she sliced another alien in half with her razor sharp right claw. Well, she would have grinned if she'd had a recognizable mouth. But she didn't- for this encounter, she'd decided to go with her favorite, custom-made combat golemn. Six feet tall and ten feet long, shaped roughly like a scorpion, she'd put in hundreds of hours fine-tuning her combat style. Her tail stabbed forward and pierced the skull of another, while the blunted left claw tried to grab one of the survivors to use as a club. Unfortunately, the electric rounds used by the enemy were interfering with the control signal transmitted from the _Nemesis, _so her golemn's movements were jittery and laggy, moving erratically or slightly behind the commands she transmitted to it. Because of this, the claw missed its target and punched one of the small, goblin-like golemns that were swarming over the enemy, crushing its tiny form to a barely maneuverable mess.

{Do you mind?} asked Raynor, the AI controlling the goblin swarm. {I'm already gonna have to get two of these remade entirely, thanks to that damn grenade. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to get a set of swarm golemns made?}

**(Codex Updated- Golemns- Made by combining the talents of animators and enchanters, golemns are the bodies utilized by AIs to exist in the physical world. AIs are able to access any unoccupied golemn by logging in through the AWN (Arcaneotech Wireless Network) and controlling it remotely. The ability to control golemns remotely has the advantage that even if the golemn is destroyed, the AI controlling it is not. However, if the AWN signal is interfered with, the golemn is harder to control, or even rendered useless. **

**Custom Made Golemns- Many AIs, rather than use the publicly available standardized golemns, commission custom made golemns to suit their purposes. Custom made golemns are often password locked so that only trusted parties may access them.**

**Swarm Golemns- Unlike standard golemns, swarm golemns, usually found in groups of three to ten, are smaller and simpler to use, are enchanted with a very low level of intelligence, and share an internal network. The intelligence enchantment and internal network decrease the already high difficulty and complexity of controlling several golemns at once. Unfortunately, if more golemns are in a swarm, it is extremely difficult to put much intelligence into them, and therefore larger swarms are difficult to control. Having a high level of control over a swarm larger than seven golemns is considered indication of a great deal of skill on the part of the AI involved.)**

{Sorry,} Cortana replied. {It's these damn electric rounds they're using. They keep screwing with my aim.}

{Well then move away from your allies, idiot. That way if you miss, you won't mind whatever you _did _hit,} Raynor snarked back irritably.

{I WAS away from allies! How do you think I got my leg blasted off? There wasn't anybody to take out the bastard with the grenade! Don't blame me because you got your goblins within my reach!}

While the two AIs continued their argument, a deep, black glow began to cover the bodies of the fallen alien soldiers.

{Fuck yeah!} exclaimed Paksennarion over the network. {They finally shot off the Necro-cannon! Reinforcements galore!}

All around the battlefield, aliens stopped fighting and stared as the corpses of fallen allies began to stand up and turn around. Their dead, emotionless eyes fell onto the remaining aliens, and the moving corpses surged forward with an eerie silence. At about the same time the undead aliens began to reach their erstwhile allies, a red wave washed over the ship. Mandibles flared and eyes widened as the aliens were struck with a sourceless terror. The combination of the AI golemns, the undead, and the fear spell was too much, and caused more than one of the enemy to collapse into a whimpering heap, and many others to turn and run for their lives. Those that remained took aim with shaking hands and resumed the battle, only to be torn apart by fallen friends and faceless metal monsters.

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The battle was not going well for the Turians. The enemy was still outnumbered, but their quick firing rate and the Turians' inability to effectively block enemy fire was taking its toll. The _Shade_ had reported that the boarders were at the bridge, and had gone silent a few minutes later. The _Malta_'s boarders were close to the bridge as well- Tulus estimated that the ship would be taken within five minutes. Another three cruisers and five frigates had been taken out of the battle, with only two enemy cruisers and two frigates being eliminated in return.

To make matters worse, the synthetics seemed to be using biological warfare. Some captains were giving irrational or incomprehensible orders.

"What the fuck is going on, Tulus?" came the voice of the _Brotherhood'_s captain, Mantis Agasis.

"Calm yourself, Agasis. You're a Turian captain, and you will act like one, do you understand?" Scipio answered sharply. This was not the time for hardened Turians to be acting like frightened children.

"You're one to talk, Tulus! You don't have dead crewmembers attacking your people, and entire squadrons breaking before they even reach combat!"

Tulus looked up in disbelief. "_What _did you just say?"

"You heard me, _captain. _Every single one of my men that's died so far just got up and started tearing my crew apart. We even had one of the bastards on the bridge! Ensign Numoculus was killed when the computer he was working on had a power surge and exploded. About a minute ago, he got up and ripped his partner to shreds with his bare hands, and he wouldn't stop moving till we blew him and half the bridge to bits with a grenade! And the parts that are left are _still _fucking moving! Then I got a report that two full squadrons broke ranks and ran, before they'd even come in sight of the enemy. The ones that were already in combat are even worse. I've got battle hardened Turians running from their own Spirits-damned shadows!"

Tulus looked at his vidscreen, where the state of the battle was displayed. Another Turian cruiser and several frigates had fallen, some of them due to the biological weapons that were infecting their crews.

"Shit! The AIs have reached the bridge!" yelled Agasis. "They're in..."

"Damn," muttered Tulus as the _Brotherhood _went silent. With the fall of the _Brotherhood, _he was now down to a single dreadnought, six cruisers, and twenty-two frigates, while the enemy had two dreadnoughts, seven cruisers, and twelve frigates. It was _possible _that they could defeat the synthetics, but Tulus doubted it, and he wasn't willing to risk the lives of his men on such a low chance. Furthermore, somebody had to get back to the Citadel and report this new threat.

"All ships are to withdraw from combat and attempt to leave the system," he ordered. "Upon reaching allied territory, all ships are to initiate quarantine procedures until the biological threat is neutralized."

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"The aliens are withdrawing, sir. They look to be going for the Tuning Station on the other side of the system."

"Have the AIs taken over the enemy ships yet?" Flint asked.

"They've taken Bogeys Two and Nineteen, but Bogey Five has put up heavier resistance than expected. The AIs estimate that they'll be in control of the ship within four minutes; that should be time to take it over before the enemy reaches the Tuning Station."

"The _Nemesis _is requesting permission to pursue the enemy ships, sir," reported the comm officer.

"Permission denied. Let's get boarding crews onto the captured enemy ships and see what we can learn. Send any critically damaged ships back to Shanxi, and ask for reinforcements from HighCom."


	3. The Beginning of War

Before we begin, I would like to apologize for the numerous errors present in the previous chapter. I'm working without a beta at the moment, and that chapter underwent extremely extensive rewrites before I posted it, and I apparently forgot to change some of the details. I have also changed the battle tactics somewhat to be more realistic. Thanks, and sorry.

By the way, I was unable to find specifics for the tactics or fleet sizes used by the Turians anywhere online, and all that the fanfics agree on is that the Turians use a wedge shaped formation. As stupid as that is, because it completely ignores the fact that space battles take place in THREE dimensions, not two, it seems to be cannon, so I guess I'll have to go with it. Beyond that, what I've decided is that Turian fleets consist of three dreadnoughts, with eight cruisers and sixteen frigates to a dreadnought.

Human tactics are both more reasonable, since I could make them up myself (though David Weber did influence it), and more complex, because of the extra ship categories. Basically, the idea is that you put your SDs and DNs together. The CRs will be a ways behind them, protected by a small screen of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates. The remaining ships are then spread into a semisphere, with the SDs and DNs as its center, and the BCs spread throughout the hemisphere to provide maximum coverage. Human fleets vary in size based on what they're needed for, but the standard formula is as follows.

1 battlecruiser, 3 heavy cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 4 destroyers, and 16 frigates to a dreadnought or carrier.

If superdreadnoughts or supercarriers are present, the numbers are increased by half(ish), to provide 2 BCs, 5 HCs, 10 LCs, 6 DSs, and 24 FRs. In addition, there will be one DN and one CR, minus their complements.

If no DNs or CRs are present, the formula is 1 HC, 3 LCs, 2 DSs, and 8 FRs.

If you can't get your head around all this, or don't care to, don't worry. It's not a big deal. It's just for those of you who, like me, enjoy the tactics of military science fiction. I have all the numbers and tactics written in greater detail in my notes (and in my head), and I will be following the formulas I've worked out. The numbers won't always follow these formulas exactly, but will rather use it as a base for me to work with and add things to, depending on the situation and the needs of the humans.

Similarly, I'm working on the design for the Empire's government system. I already had a vague idea of how it would work (it's really more like a constitutional monarchy), but now I'm fleshing it out more. I should be able to provide a rough summary of the government's workings soon-ish-y.

Lastly, I've decided to stop bothering to name the members of the bridge crews. From now on, only the commanders get names. It's too much to keep track of who's in what position, and what they've already said, and what names I've already used.

Also lastly, it's important to remember that the humans' and Turians' classifications differ. When I'm writing from the Turians' POV, the human BCs will be referred to as dreadnoughts, and the DNs and SDs will be called superdreadnoughts, and HCs, LCs, and DSs will all be called cruisers. This is because that's how the Turians think of these ships. However, the humans have learned of the Turians' classifications from the captured soldiers. This means that when I'm writing from the humans' POV, Turian dreadnoughts will still be called dreadnoughts. Likewise, the Turians will refer to the AMACs as MACs, because they aren't familiar with the arcane nature of the weapons, but the humans will know that the enemy weapons are Mass Effect weapons.

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Saren Arterius took stock of his situation as he awoke. He was bound tightly to a chair at a plain metal table. His arms were in chains, and his feet were strapped to the floor. Looking around, he saw that the room he was in was more than a little strange. At first glance, it was a perfectly normal interrogation chamber- it was roughly three meters to a side, with the ceiling being slightly taller, and plain walls. Upon closer inspection, Saren noticed two odd features, however. The first was that the light didn't come from anywhere. Oh, it was _there. _There was plenty of light. It just seemed to be coming from the air itself. The second thing was the disturbing lack of an entrance. After straining for a minute to see behind him, he determined that there weren't any doors or windows. Hell, there weren't any cracks in the walls.

"Hello. It's good to see you're awake."

Saren jumped as two aliens appeared out of thin air. The first one appeared to be a brown Asari with fur on the top of its head. It was wearing a navy blue and dark green, skin-tight suit, with an insignia above its left breast, and a strange, lopsided hat.

The other alien was a pinkish color, and apparently male. Rather than the skin-tight suit of its companion, it wore black pants and a black coat, with a white undergarment, and some strange black strip that hung from a knot under the creature's neck. The exposed skin on the alien's body was covered with strange, deep purple symbols.

"I am Lieutenant Commander Kristen Gallemore of the Imperial Space Navy," said the Asari-ish alien. "My friend here is Specialist Talon Lovewell. We're here to see what you can tell us. Let's start with the basics. What is the name of your species?"

"Corporal Saren Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1," Saren said.

Kristen's lips turned up to show her (?) teeth. "Name, rank, and serial number, eh? Look, we can do this one of two ways. Option one- I ask you questions and you answer them. Option two- Specialist Lovewell tears the information straight from your mind. From what I understand, it's an extremely painful process, and there's usually permanent damage. So, let's try this again. What's the name of your species?"

"Corporal Saren Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1."

"Very well, Saren. Let's give you a small taste of what you're in for. Talon, if you would. Just the basics for now- species name, home planet, government, that sort of thing."

The male alien nodded and stepped forward as the symbols on his body began to glow. The light slowly intensified until the entire room was bathed in an eerie violet light. Talon looked Saren in the eyes, and suddenly the Turian was in more pain than he'd ever been in in his life.

Saren screamed as he felt the intruder tear through his mind mercilessly. The pain was more intense than anything he'd ever imagined. The searing agony left no room for coherent thought, not even begging for it to end. Saren's body was on fire, and freezing, and being stabbed with a million million needles, all at once.

Suddenly, as abruptly as it began, the pain disappeared and Talon stepped back. The male alien said something to Kristen. While Saren couldn't understand the language, he was able to make out the words "Turian" and "Palaven."

"So," began Kristen, "now that you have an idea what we can do, why don't you cooperate with us a little more?"

Saren said nothing, simply glaring at the alien.

"Why did you attack us?"

"Corporal Saren Arterius, 51st Infantry, 59BR28A1." While the question was innocent, Saren wasn't going to give the aliens the satisfaction of an answer, even if they _were _just going to read his mind.

Kristen let out a long breath. "Very well. Specialist Lovewell, go ahead and go all the way. He clearly isn't going to cooperate."

The glowing resumed as Talon stepped forward again, and everything went _pain._

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"What can you tell us about this species, Admiral Harper?" Councilor Miranda Cole asked the man on the holoboard. The Imperial Council had gathered together to hear the AEA's (Agency for External Affairs) report on the alien species. Present were Councilor Cole, the Councilor of the Armed Forces; Marvin Gibbor, the Councilor of Economics; Ashley Furr, the Councilor for Diplomatic Relations; Georgio Lombard, head of the Department of Arcaneotech Research; Ransom Watton, the Councilor for Education; Tiberius Tongate, the Councilor for the Public Welfare; James Bartlett, the Councilor for Environmental Control; and, of course, Emperor William Tyson.

"Quite a lot, councilor. Our psi-agents were able to retrieve quite a great deal of information. The race that attacked us is a species called the Turians. They make up the military branch of a galactic government called the Citadel Council. Apparently, they attacked us for activating the Tuning Station (they call them Mass Relays, and use them for FTL travel), which is against their law."

"You're telling me that they initiated First Contact by attacking us for breaking a law we couldn't have possibly known about?!" exclaimed Gibbor.

"Apparently so, sir," answered Agent Jack Harper, "But things get worse. You see, for some reason the Citadel races believe that it's impossible for organic life-forms and Artificial Intelligences to coexist. Something to do with a race of AIs called the Geth. Since we used AIs in our boarding actions, the Turians all think that we're a race of hostile AIs. They fully expect the Citadel Council to wage a war of extermination against us."

"You're kidding me. Just because we used AIs to _defend ourselves, _they're going to try and commit genocide?" asked Tongate.

"Well," began Furr, "they wouldn't think of it that way. If they think AIs can't coexist with organics, then they'd think that we're going to commit genocide against _them. _From their perspective, it's a matter of kill or be killed. Now, it's obviously completely idiotic of them to assume that we're a race of hostile AIs, but that can't be helped."

"Well, if they're dead set on a war of extermination, I vote we give them one," proposed Councilor Cole. "They can go the same way as the Fortigal and the Triating."

"No."

Everybody looked at Emporer Tyson as he broke into the conversation.

William Tyson was an older man, in his mid sixties, but he still cut an imposing figure. His well groomed hair, close trimmed beard, tall stature, and immaculate clothes were enough to make anybody overlook the slight paunch he had developed in his old age, and when he spoke in his surprisingly soft voice, everybody listened.

"I will not be responsible for beginning a third Galactic War if it can be avoided. If this Citadel Council attacks us, then we will defend ourselves, yes. But first we must make all possible efforts to prevent that. If they intend to attack us because they believe that we are a race of hostile AIs, it should be simple enough to prevent war by simply proving them wrong." Tyson turned to the hologram of Harper. "Do we have coordinates for this Citadel Council's base of government?"

"Yes, your Eminence. We were able to pull the information from one of the captured officers. It's in a space station that they call the Citadel."

"And have we worked out a translation software for their language?"

"Yes, your Eminence."

"Good. What I propose is that I take an ambassadorial ship to this Citadel, protected by a military task force, in order to attempt peaceful negotiations. I will, of course, require reparations for the lives lost in the Turians' unfounded attack on my people. In addition, I must make it clear to the Citadel Council that we are a sovereign nation- they have no right to enforce their laws on our people."

"I'm not sure we should send military forces, your Eminence," interjected Councilor Furr. "If they expect us to be hostile, then they may assume any military ships to be an invasion force."

"But if we don't send a protection detail," argued Cole, "they might destroy the ambassadorial ship just for belonging to 'evil AIs.' Can we afford to risk the Emperor on a mad gamble like that?"

"If we were to just send a single ship, surely they would recognize that our intentions are peaceful," Furr retorted.

"That didn't stop them from attacking our research ship, now did it?" Gibbor pointed out. "What if we were to just send a fairly small protection detail, but have a larger one nearby in case they attack? If we send a small force, they shouldn't think it's an attack, but we can keep a larger defense fleet a wormhole away in case the Turians attack our ships. The protection detail should be able to keep the Turians at bay until the reinforcements arrive."

"That... actually, that seems reasonable," said Cole. "But it would have to be a damned good task force, if His Eminence is going to be going. And I'll have to insist that the fleet stay together until they get near the Citadel."

Furr nodded. "As long as the protection detail isn't too imposing, it shouldn't be a problem. Also, it occurs to me that rather than using wormholes, we should use the Tuning Stations, since that's what these aliens are familiar with. If we use a method of travel they aren't familiar with, they may panic and shoot on sight."

"Very well," said Tyson. "All in favor?"

All of the councilors raised their hands, and Tyson nodded. "We're agreed then. Councilor Cole, I want you to work with Councilor Furr to decide on an appropriate, non-threatening protection detail. Work with Agent Harper to decide on an appropriate reinforcement group. I want both tasks finished within a week."

"Yes, your Eminence," replied the two councilors and the special agent.

"In that case, meeting adjourned," Tyson finished, standing up.

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"Very well," said Councilor Tevos. "That should be all for today. Unless anybody has anything to add that isn't on the agenda?"

"Actually," began Sparatus, "Primarch Fedorian has relayed some rather disturbing news to me. A patrol task force recently encountered a race of hostile AIs near Relay 314. If you would care to watch, I have some recordings from the battle."

Tevos's face paled slightly, and she nodded. "I... I think that would be wise."

Sparatus punched a few keys on his Omnitool, and the holo-projector began playing a recording of the encounter, starting with the small vessel activating the Relay. The councilors watched silently as the alien fleet came to the rescue and opened fire upon the Turian task force. Tevos gasped when she saw the aliens' use of ship-to-ship energy weapons, something that all conventional science said was impossible. When the corpses of the fallen Turians began to reanimate, she nearly fainted.

After the video was over, Sparatus turned off the holo-projector and turned to his counterparts.

"As you can see, this race is extremely dangerous," stated the Turian councilor, "The intelligence and combat abilities displayed by the mechs used to board our ships make it clear that these were in fact AIs, not simply remote controlled mechs or VIs. What I find even more disturbing, though, is these AIs mastery of biological warfare. The crews of three frigates and two cruisers were incapacitated by biological weapons, such that their actions were dangerously unreasonable, and the entire task force is under quarantine. Then there is the ability to reanimate corpses. The only possible way my analysts have figured out that it could be possible is if the AIs are using some form of nanotechnology. Again, this is extremely disturbing."

The other two councilors said nothing- Tevos, because she was too shocked by the implications of this new species; Perlip, the Salarian councilor, because the STG had already sent him the records of the battle, and he was already fully aware of the situation. For once, the Salarian actually agreed with Sparatus's analysis- these AIs were clearly a threat to galactic peace.

"What do we do?" Tevos asked.

"I already thought of that. It seems obvious that we should send an attack force through the Relay to exterminate the threat that these synthetics clearly pose. I would also like to request the authorization of orbital bombardment on the synthetic's worlds- we need to be able to eliminate them with minimal casualties."

"Agreed," said Perlip. "I will order an STG probe to be sent through the Relay to gain information on the forces of the synthetics."

"Good. There's already a blockade around Relay 314, with orders to shoot down anything that comes through. Once the probe comes back, we'll launch the attack."

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"Admiral, the Relay is activating," said the sensors officer on the HNV _Maverick_. "A number of ships are coming through... It looks like... Spirits," the officer swore quietly as an enormous dreadnought appeared on his array. "One _Destiny Ascension _sized ship, and one even larger than that. There's also three standard sized dreadnoughts, thirty roughly cruiser-sized ships, though most of them are small for a cruiser, and fifty frigates."

The Turian second, fourth, and seventh fleets were currently sitting in formation around the Mass Relay. Each fleet consisted of three dreadnoughts, twenty-four cruisers, and forty-eight frigates. Together, there were nine dreadnoughts, seventy-two cruisers, and 144 frigates.

Admiral Alsia Linscus frowned as the numbers were reported, and looked at the formation of the invasion force (it was obviously an invasion force- it was simply too large to be anything else) carefully. It was extremely unorthodox- rather than the wedge shape that the Citadel races used, it was shaped like the front of a sphere. The _Destiny Ascension _sized ship was towards the front, while the largest ship was towards the back, surrounded by a small screen of ships. There was also a single cruiser in the center of the curve, flanked by two dreadnoughts and a screen in addition to the superdreadnought.

Linscus considered the arrangement carefully. The three kilometer ship was, judging by the location, a support ship. It probably carried ground troops for the invasion, he decided. The cruiser in the center, though, that was peculiar. Then it struck him- the entire formation was designed to protect that ship. He didn't know why, but it was clearly extremely important to the synthetics, and therefore a high value target.

"Exec, what do you think that ship is?" Linscus asked his executive officer. "It's clearly important judging by the way the synthetics are protecting it."

"It's probably a command center, sir. Think about it- with this many synthetics in one place, they'd have to have a central computer to run everything."

Linscus considered that for a moment, then made his decision.

"Order all our ships to fire on that vessel in the initial volley," Linscus ordered, punching in the command. The hope was that if all of the ships fired on the ship in the initial volley, then _something _had to get through the wall of protective point defense that the sphere represented.

"Orders transmitted, sir," said the tactical officer, then, "Confirmation received from all ships."

Linscus watched the vidscreen in satisfaction as his forces opened fire simultaneously, all letting loose their Mass Accelerator roundsat once. There was no chance they would fail to hit their target. As the projectiles sped towards their target, the semisphere tightened, the ships drawing closer together in an attempt to provide more coverage. The enemy's point defense activated, shooting down Mass Accelerator rounds by the hundreds, and alien ships maneuvered to intercept the projectiles, taking out dozens more. Unfortunately for them, the rounds were present by the thousands. The screen around the target ship closed up, maneuvering to get in the way of the Mass Accelerator rounds, but there were too many, and the ships were simply blasted out of the way.

The Turian admiral flared his mandibles in triumph as he watched the remaining Mass Accelerator rounds hit the target, and then the ship exploded.

Suddenly, all the synthetics' ships froze.

Linscus watched the aliens' ships carefully- had his exec's guess been right?

"Sir... the alien fleet is transmitting a message to the entire fleet."

Linscus looked at his exec in confusion- if they'd destroyed the command ship, how were the synthetics able to transmit a message?

His exec just shrugged.

"It was only a guess."

"Play it," Linscus ordered after glaring at his executive officer.

To Linscus' surprise, the comm officer hit the key to put the message on the vidscreen. He had expected the synthetics to just send audio- after all, an AI didn't really need a body, so they would only use them when they needed to.

To his shock, the creature the vidscreen showed wasn't an AI at all. It was a pinkish, Turianoid alien in a skin-tight suit, with a lopsided hat on top of its fur-covered head.

To his _extreme_ shock, the alien appeared to be on fire.

"Turian fleet," said the alien, "this is Admiral Alan Prewitt of the Imperial Space Navy. We were on our way to your Citadel to discuss peace negotiations. These negotiations are already over." The alien paused and took a deep breath. "You just killed our emporer. I just wanted to let you know that whatever officer gave the order to attack that ship, you are going to be singlehandedly responsible for the extinction of the Turian species."

Linscus felt the blood drain from his face as the vidscreen turned off.

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Well, there it is. I'd like to give a huge thanks to Emily of FantasyNamegenerators .com. Without the enormous amount of effort she puts into making accurate names, I never would have even considered writing a Mass Effect fic. I'm terrible at coming up with names, and while Turian names are easy enough (just pick a Roman name), the other races would be impossible for me. Hell, I have a hard enough time with human names that I use her website for those, too.

I'm still not gonna name the members of the bridge crews, though.


	4. The First Battle

I've made a few more changes to previous chapters. I took out the plague rounds- they were just too much of an advantage for the humans. I also realized that with the presence of smart AIs, it was stupid to use manned fighters. Unmanned fighters controlled by AIs would be smaller, meaning the CRs could carry more of them. Also, the lack of a need for life support and pilot space would allow for heavier armaments and stronger engines.

I'd also like to give a big thanks to l3ct0r, fray253, deathleader,, DivineWhisperV2, RightHandOfPalpitine, Zauber, Yinko, TheGhost129, Nargus, bandgsecurtiyaw, jmsdragn, KhasintheDark, jabbarulez, and darkplayer35 for leaving reviews.

**(Codex Updated- Fighter Drones- Roughly five meters in diameter, the spherical unmanned fighter drones of the Imperial Navy are a force to be reckoned with. Each drone is equipped with its own dumb AI, which, combined with a strong internal network allows a smart AI very close control over each squad of fifty drones, permitting complex tactics and maneuvers. In addition, the lack of a pilot means that the drones are more heavily armed and have stronger engines. These engines allow the drones to perform aerial feats which a human being would be unable to survive, granting extreme maneuverability. The drones are armed with two small but powerful AMACs and a levitation shield.)**

Lastly, KhazintheDark pointed out that there may be some confusion as to the nature of the Levitation Shields. The basic idea is that the levitation charm moves items "upwards" in relation to the ship. Now, in my original idea, this would mean that if you fired at the "bottom" of the ship, then the levitation charm would carry the projectile "up", towards the ship. To solve this problem, I've decided that the ship is rotated during the casting of the levitation enchantment. This means that the spell's definition of "up" changes. At the "top" of the ship, the levitation charm is moving objects "up," but at the "bottom," the spell is backwards, and moves things "down," because that direction was "up" when the spell was cast.

A simpler way to look at it is that rather than a levitation charm, it's simply an object repelling ward that moves things away from the ship. But that's not as original, so I'm still calling it a Levitation Shield.

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Admiral Prewitt took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. One of the disadvantages of being a pyromancer was that he had a tendency to catch fire when he was angry. And he was _furious. _They'd been on the way to discuss peace with these aliens. The presence of an alien fleet outside the Tuning Station had caught them by surprise, though, and the Emperor had hesitated for a moment before contacting the aliens. That moment was the moment when the aliens had opened fire. The Emperor _himself _had been going to meet these aliens' leaders to discuss peace, and the fucking bastards had intentionally, deliberately targeted his ship. The most revered man alive, murdered on a peace mission.

All of this added up to explain why most of the bridge crew was now being treated for second degree burns. When the projectiles hit the _Emperor's Hand, _the ambassadorial ship, Prewitt had been so furious that the heat radiating off of his flaming body had burned every crewmember within ten feet of him.

Fortunately, the tactical officer had been unharmed.

"All ships are to fire at will. No surrender, no mercy," ordered the still-burning Prewitt.

There was a pause while the Imperial ships relayed and confirmed the orders. And then they fired with everything they had.

The first strike was launched by the flagship of the fleet, the INS _Empire's Might, _a dreadnought. Three gigantic beams of light were launched from the ship's primary cannons. The first beam tore through a Turian cruiser, destroying it, then went on to kill two frigates and cripple a third. The second beam ripped open a dreadnought and overloaded its Mass Effect core, causing it to explode spectacularly. The third sliced clean through a cruiser and went on to hit another, delivering critical damage.

After the flagship had fulfilled the honor of beginning the Emperor's vengeance, the other ships joined in. The destroyers in the first squadron were equipped with energy weapons as well, which were responsible for the deaths of three more cruisers and a frigate. At the same time, the ships let loose with their missile launchers and AMACs. Thousands of AMAC rounds and missiles and hundreds of AI pods were all fired in concert, while the remaining destroyers let loose with their plasma cannons and the carrier released its entire detachment of twelve hundred fighter drones.

The Third Galactic War had begun.

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"Captain, they've taken engineering," reported the logistics officer onboard the HNV _Resolution._

Commodore Flavius Tentun swore viciously as he glanced at the CIC board. So far, the enemy boarding mechs (it seemed obvious now to everyone that these creatures _weren't _AIs) had managed to take over the the crew quarters, Weapons One, the armory (that had been a big blow), the general storage area, and now Engineering. That left Medical, Weapons Two and Three, the munitions station, the docking bays, and the army quarters under his control, and the mechs were already well on the way to taking Weapons Two. To make matters worse, having taken Engineering, the mechs now had an easy, direct route to any other part of the ship they cared to attack.

"Order the soldiers to fall back from Army One and fortify themselves between Engineering and the bridge. The soldiers in the docking bays and Army Two are to reinforce the defenders in the munitions center. Have the soldiers in Army Three to withdraw to Weapons Two. Once they've arrived, the Cabal is to withdraw and launch a counterattack on Engineering."

The Cabals were the Turians' squads of biotics. Highly trained and extremely deadly, they were the Hierarchy's special forces, and most dreadnoughts carried at least one Cabal. Early on in the fight, somebody had discovered that if the mechs were hit with a biotic attack, they would shut down. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was the best weapon they had- the armor on the mechs was so strong that Mass Effect rounds simply bounced off, and the only reason anybody would use explosives on a spaceship was if they were extremely desperate, insane, or both.

"Yes, sir," said the logistics officer, transmitting the orders to the various groups of Turians.

Tentun sighed and resumed the task of guiding his fleet, even as his ship was being taken over from the inside.

This battle was not going well for the Turians.

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Corporal Tiberisius Genetion, an engineer onboard the HNV _Memory, _crept along behind two other Turians, automatic rifle in hand. About half an hour into the battle, every dead Turian on the _Memory _(and there had been a lot of them- those damn teleporting missiles had hit the army quarters, among other areas)had gotten up and begun attacking the survivors. Blast doors had immediately been sealed, trapping the zombies wherever they were, but also trapping the soldiers. Then, about ten minutes ago, Weapons Two had been hit by a MAC round. Genetion had been given a protection detail of four soldiers and ordered to see what could be done to fix the damage. One of the soldiers had died almost immediately, thanks to a swarm of zombies waiting just outside Engineering. The squad leader had been killed about five minutes later when a zombie that had been hiding behind a bulkhead jumped on him and ripped out his throat.

The three remaining Turians moved carefully, checking every crevice before moving to the next doorway. The lieutenant who was now in charge prepared to punch in the access code, while Genetion and the private took aim at the doorway. The door slid open to reveal... nothing. Genetion sighed in relief- that was the last room before Weapons Two. The Turians scoped out the room, and, finding nothing, prepared to open the last doorway. The blast door slid to the side, and a headless zombie that had been scratching at the door jumped through. Genetion and the private opened fire with their assault rifles, the high speed Mass Effect rounds tearing the zombie in half at such close range. Unfortunately, that did less good than one would expect. The undead Turian's torso continued to move, and grabbed onto the lieutenant's leg. Even worse, the sound of combat had attracted the rest of the zombies in the room. Seven more of the creatures surged forward and, without a sound, tore into the screaming lieutenant. Genetion let loose with his rifle until it overheated, tearing the arms off of another zombie, while the private blasted the head off of a third. Of course, the loss of its head didn't affect the zombie in the slightest, while the gunfire attracted its attention. The undead monster, along with two others, turned in the private's direction. Blood spattered the walls as the zombies tore off his arm, and the soldier screamed as the zombies clawed at his eyes with their talons.

Genetion, shocked by the horror of what was happening to his comrade, completely forgot about his own trouble until the zombie whose arms he had shot off bit him on the arm. The Turian engineer yelled, and tried to shake off the monster, but it held on tightly. The three zombies who had been slaughtering the private finished their grisly work, and turned to the incapacitated engineer.

Genetion had time for one last thought before his former comrades ripped open his gut.

This battle was not going well for the Turians.

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Linscus swore as the enemy fighters swung around for another attack run. Whoever heard of using fighters as an attack force like this? And such small ones, at that? Sure, Citadel ships carried a few fighters with them, but the entire fleet barely had two hundred of them, none of which were nearly as well armed as the ones the aliens were using, and the aliens had hundreds of the damn things. He'd released his fighters as soon as he saw the aliens release theirs, but that had turned out to be a waste. Even though he'd ordered them to stay within range of the GARDIAN lasers and act defensively against the enemy fighters, they'd still been reduced to a third of their numbers within ten minutes. They'd taken their toll on the enemy fighters, yes, but not enough to make a difference. The enemy fighters were too small and fast to hit easily, and were ridiculously maneuverable. The damned things would swarm a ship a hundred at a time, flying past at insane speeds and letting loose with their MACs until their target was a worthless piece of scrap. They'd even managed to take out a dreadnought doing that. The dreadnought had put up a decent fight with its GARDIAN lasers and its surviving fighters, but it had still been taken down.

"Confirmed kill, captain. Bogey Four has been destroyed," reported the sensors officer.

Good. That was one of the enemy dreadnoughts down. That was the Turians' only advantage- numbers. They outnumbered the aliens by more than two to one. The problem was that the alien ships were much more heavily armed. That superdreadnought, though, was proving to be too much for his forces to handle. It had already taken out a dreadnought and two whole squadrons of cruisers. He hadn't wanted to focus fire on it until the enemy numbers were down some, but now that they'd destroyed a dreadnought and all of the cruisers with energy weapons, they could afford to focus fire more than usual.

"Have all dreadnoughts and CruRons Five, Seven, and Thirteen direct their fire to the enemy superdreadnought," he ordered. "The remaining cruisers are to focus fire on Bogey

"Orders transmitted, sir."

A few moments later, the Tac officer frowned and punched a few keys. His frown deepened, and he said, "The _Resolution _and the _Infinity _aren't responding, sir. They've gone silent."

_Dammit! _Linscus swore silently. _That's five ships so far! And a dreadnought this time! Those spirits damned boarding mechs!_

"Noted," Linscus said. "Open fire," he ordered.

With that, the designated ships fired as one on the alien superdreadnought. Dozens of Mass Accelerator rounds flew through space to tear into the unshielded alien ship and tear it apart. The aliens' point defense opened fire and tore the rounds apart, but it wasn't enough to take out all of them.

MA rounds crashed into the superdreadnought, flattening and transferring hundreds of pounds of force into the ship. Explosions rocked the vessel, and atmosphere streamed from holes rent in its armor.

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The ship buckled under Prewitt as more enemy fire battered at his dreadnought. Idly, Prewitt wondered why it had taken the Turians so long to focus their fire, but it was his philosophy to never look a gift horse in the mouth. He wasn't entirely certain what that meant, exactly, but he made a point to not do it nonetheless.

"Sir, the last of the escape pods just left. The crew is off the ship."

"Nobody refused to leave, then?" Prewitt asked.

"Oh, quite a lot of them did. I had to stun them and have bots carry them to the escape pods. Don't worry, though. They won't be faced with insubordination charges- their actions were completely off the record," Nightfall answered.

"Good. The course is set, then?"

"Straight for the heart of the enemy forces, yes sir."

"Very well. Set her on her way, and then upload yourself to the AN," Prewitt ordered.

"Yes sir. It's been an honor serving with you, Admiral Prewitt." Nightfall said.

"With you too, Nightfall. Make sure the Empire gives the Turians hell for me, will you old friend?"

"You have my word, Alan." Nightfall said solemnly. "Goodbye." With that, the AI uploaded himself to the Arcaneotech Network, and left Admiral Alan Prewitt to carry out his final mission.

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Linscus stared as the enemy superdreadnought moved toward his forces, accelerating at a rate he wouldn't have believed the damaged ship could manage, firing whatever guns remained wildly. The alien fighters in the area converged on it and put down a layer of protective point defense fire, blocking many of the Mass Accelerator rounds from hitting their target.

"Tactical, what's happening?" Linscus asked.

"The enemy superdreadnought is headed straight for the center of our fleet, sir. That, combined with the large number of pods it ejected a little while ago, implies that the commander intends to initiate some sort of self destruct mechanism."

Linscus blinked, then realized that the tactical officer's analyses was accurate. Furthermore, a ship that big would have a hell of a self destruct.

"Order all ships to fire on that SD!" Linscus commanded quickly. "If it makes it within thirty kilometers, all ships are to spread out and attempt to avoid it!"

The Turian ships turned their guns on the alien superdreadnought, firing as rapidly as they could without overheating their weapons. The superdreadnought was clearly taking damage- atmosphere was streaming from every part of the vessel, debris was falling off, guns were ceasing to fire, and it slowed down significantly. But still it came on, firing whatever was left, trudging towards its mortal enemy. Eventually, it reached the specified distance, and the Turian ships began to spread out. Unfortunately for them, in their attempt to destroy the superdreadnought, they had fallen slightly out of formation in order to get better shots. This meant that it was difficult for the ships to maneuver around each other to spread out. The ships on the edge of the formation were able to expand As the Turians struggled to reach a safe distance from the superdreadnought, the alien fighters put on a tremendous burst of speed and disappeared from the area, firing at Turian vessels as they left. Seconds later, they were gone.

The alien superdreadnought trudged towards the center of the formation, weathering Turian fire as it went. When it was about a third of the way into the Turian formation, it slowed to a stop. The bridge of the _Maverick _was silent for a moment, and then it abruptly disappeared alongside the alien vessel and a full fifth of the Turian fleet.

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Sorry that took so long to write. I've been distracted lately. Also, I need help deciding the fate of _Those Damn Primitives. _The old guy and I have decided that we have enough original material to turn it into a novel, rather than a fanfic. The Mass Effect origins would still be apparent, but it would be new material. Please vote on the poll on my profile.


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